Pramesh S Jain & Dr.Thomas (Special Correspondent)
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In a record time,Subramanyapura police cracked the murder case of senior geologist and nabbed former driver of mines and geology from Chamarajanagar”.
In a swift action,the Subramanyapura police on Saturday arrested 32-year-old sacked driver who killed Senior Geologist Prathima KS,outside her apartment in Doddakallasandra on Friday night.
The accused Kiran,killed Prathima using her veil and knife as soon as she entered the apartment,after she refused to take him back to work .
Kiran who worked with Prathima for four years was sacked from work for being rude and unruly at work .
Prathima after repeated reminders sacked Kiran replacing him with another driver on contract basis.
Kiran,a resident of Jumbo Savari dinne in Konankunte and his father working in the same department as driver,working as a driver with the Mines and Geology Department over the past eight years.
Though he has been employed as a contract employee all these years,he presumed that his services would be regularlized and that he would be made a permanent government employee in matter of two to three years – if all goes well.
Kiran had even told everyone including his friends, relatives and family members that his job as a driver has been already regularised,a senior police officer said.
Kiran who was jobless for over a month had trouble at home and his wife separated from him.Desperate Kiran wanted to get back his work and came to Prathima’s apartment a day before the murder to meet and request her .
Since she was not available kiran returned and came back on Friday night and waited,Rahul Kumar Shahpurwad,DCP,South division,who supervised the investigation,said .
The Subramanyapura police,on Sunday morning around 8.30 am,received a phone call from one Pratheesh stating that he had come to his sister’s house in Doddakallasandra near Gokulam Apartments as she was not lifting his phone calls since the previous night.
Pratheesh told the police that he found the front door of his sister’s two-storied independent house open and she was lying motionless in her bedroom in a pool of blood.
Considering the magnitude of the case,three special teams have been formed who swung into action and started verifying the clues available .
After collecting information from Prathima’s office colleagues and neighbours of the apartment,they learnt that a former driver named Kiran who was sacked from job a couple of months ago had gone incommunicado. Kiran’s phone remained switched off and when the police inquired with Kiran’s family members,they did not have an idea as to where he was.
This turned the needle of suspicion towards the former driver after which the two police teams started pursuing about his whereabouts and traced Kiran to Male Mahadeshwara (MM) Hills in Chamarajanagar.
Kiran was picked up by the cops on Sunday night and he was brought to Bengaluru the same day and was subjected to interrogation when he admitted to the crime.
Kiran apparently told the police that he had gone to Prathima’s house on Saturday night as he knew that she would get back home by around 8 pm on all working days as he was working as her former driver.
He went to meet Prathima on Saturday one last time to apologize to her and request her to reinstate him back into the job.
However, when Prathima was in no mood to give a hearing to him,he forced himself inside her house and decided to eliminate her.
Kiran initially used a veil Prathima was wearing at house to strangulate her.When she fell unconcious,he went to her kitchen and brought along a knife with which he slit her throat.
After confirming that she was dead,he then waited for the right time to escape when no one was there in the building or not many was on the road.Kiran then fled to Chamarajanagar on the same night .
The cops have also retrieved CCTV footage of Kiran spotted near Prathima’s house on Saturday night.
According to the investigating officer, accused Kiran was depressed as he was removed from his contract driver job which he believed to be a government job in a couple of years.
Prathima used to reprimand him for his rude behaviour and had even warned him that she would remove him from job if he continues with his behaviour.
There are also occassions when the vehicle he was driving meets with a minor accident – brushing another vehicle,he goes on an abusing spree.
It was then the senior geologist Prathima,unable to put up with him,decided to replace him,a senior police officer part of the investigation,said.
There were also allegations that Kiran would leak information about raids and inspections that the junior officers at the Mines and Geology Department would carry out,however,the police maintained that they are questioning him further.
Another senior officer said that after Kiran was sacked around two months ago,he had approached Prathima at the office around two to three times requesting him to reinstate into the job.However,Prathima had by then found a replacement for him.
Kiran confessed to the murder and said that he pleaded with Prathima to take her back but she refused outright.
Enraged by this he murdered her in a fit of rage.The murder snowballed into controversy after BJP leaders accused the state government alleging that the honest officers are being murdered by mining mafia.They also accused Home Minister of not taking law and order issue seriously .
There were speculations about the murder that Prathima was murdered by Mining mafia and even blamed her marital relationship for her death.
Finally Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah,Home Minister,Dr.G Parameshwara,DG-IGP,Alok Mohan,Bengaluru City Police Commissioner,B Dayananda has appreciated Addl CP West,N Satheesh Kumar DCP South,Rahul Kumar Shahpurwad,ACP,Pavan Kumar N,PI,Raju MS,and his team for their meticulous investigation in nabbing the former driver and detecting the case in record time of within 12 hours a special reward will be given to whole team who is part of this sensational case he added.
